Dartz stuffs 1,500 horsepower into armored Black Shark

To save this post, select a stash from drop-down menu or type in a new one:

The Black Shark represents Dartz's way of staying ahead of the coming surge of super SUVs from the likes of Bentley and Lamborghini. It remains above that riffraff by following a three-point ethos of "German engineering perfection," "Soviet military power" and "Russian imperial opulence." Dartz refuses to even entertain the plebeian term "SUV," believing it doesn't properly encapsulate its bespoke creation.

"For our customer this term degrades the car to a category including farmer's trucks and grocery shopping utility vehicles," says Dartz founder and owner Leonard Yankelovich. "Luxury corporate owned brand releasing their serial-made car on steroids is still a far cry from the values that our brand and products bring to the customer. Our customers already have all common supercars, limousines, but this is the only bespoke product they get as the best of them all."

The Black Shark's German engineering comes in the form of its base biturbo V8-powered Mercedes GL63 AMG, with Dartz also offering the option of AMG's biturbo V12. While the AMG performance brand adds enough power for the average rich guy looking for a high-performance Mercedes, it's not nearly enough for Dartz's brand of customer. The company tunes the engine into a completely new stratosphere with a ceiling of 1,500-bhp. That's well over double the 600-range hp the biturbo V12 offers in AMG vehicles.